Blair: War of 'Values and Ideas' Needed

[Beet]

While I oppose the war on grounds of its counterproductivity and opposition to unjustified slaughter (i.e. we should spread democracy by more peaceful means that does not require direct American occupation), Tony Blair is "a guy who gets it" in my book, if this represents his true philosophy.

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Tue Mar 21, 1:57 PM ET

LONDON - Prime Minister     Tony Blair defended his decision to participate in the invasion of     Iraq and said Tuesday that a global war of "values and ideas" is needed to fight the threat of terrorism.

Blair told an audience of journalists in London that the struggle against terrorism was not a clash of civilizations but "a clash about civilization."

"This terrorism, in my view, will not be defeated until its ideas — the poison that warps the minds of its adherents — is met head on," Blair said in the first of three speeches on foreign policy.

Blair conceded that the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq has encountered problems but maintained that the idea that the invasion was an example of Western imperialism was a "gross over-exaggeration" and "nonsense."

Opponents have criticized Blair's willingness to back military intervention in Sierra Leone,     Kosovo,     Afghanistan and Iraq. But Blair said he rejected "the doctrine of benign inactivity" in favor of "a politics of globalization" that views the world's problems as interconnected.

Blair said the advance of democracy in Afghanistan and Iraq "is the most effective message against (terrorists') wretched propaganda about America, the West and the rest of the world."

He said terrorism would be defeated by a battle of "values and ideas set in opposition to those of the terrorists."

"This is not a clash between civilizations, it is a clash about civilization," he said.

"'We' is not the West. 'We' are as much Muslim as Christian or Jew or Hindu. We are those who believe in religious tolerance, openness to others, to democracy, liberty and human rights administered by secular courts," he said.

But Blair warned that extremism is deep-rooted and its impact felt worldwide, with some 40-50 countries subjected to regular terrorist attacks.

[WMS]

Opponents have criticized Blair's willingness to back military intervention in Sierra Leone,     Kosovo,     Afghanistan and Iraq. But Blair said he rejected "the doctrine of benign inactivity" in favor of "a politics of globalization" that views the world's problems as interconnected.

Who the f*** opposed the Sierra Leone intervention?! That was one of the best things Blair has done, saving Sierra Leone from the RUF psychopaths! How idiotic can you get?

[The Dowager Mod]

hehe "values and ideas" http://www.slate.com/id/2138469/